| Already the biggest pickup in town, the Ford Super Duty appears imposing because of bigger horizontal bars in the grille, deeper airdam and bumper with bigger cooling air openings, and stacked lamps with the headlights on the bottom.
Dimensions are easily given in yards rather than inches.
The sheer vastness of the sheetmetal may overwhelm your car wash guy.
The Power Stroke badges have been given a hybrid-like green leaf with B20 in reference to the ability to burn biodiesel fuel, but only compared to other huge trucks might a Super Duty be considered green.
Regardless of bulging flares or flared nostrils no Super Duty would be mistaken for anything less than a full-size pickup even with nothing scalable within sight.
The clamshell hood essentially wraps around the diesel engine underneath, and the rounded edges and deeper airdam have improved the coefficient of aero drag from about 0.45 to 0.425, still a block compared to a good car at 0.25-0.27.
The doors remain unchanged, the box sides are mildly modified and have a larger fuel door for the diesel models' additional diesel exhaust fluid fill.
Back-up lights are at the top of the tail-lamp assembly, so far off the ground they are really nothing more than signaling devices that the truck is in reverse.
Wheels range from 17 to 20 inches in diameter, all of aluminum except the base 17-inch steel wheels.
Towing mirrors include signal repeaters that won't distract the driver; they telescope and fold (manual or powered), and include two large reflector elements for safe rear vision with the widest street-legal trailers.
Rear cameras are mounted in the tailgate center latch housing, and display on the navigation screen or inside the rearview mirror.
An optional tailgate step pops a 16.7 x 4.5-inch step with a half-ton load rating out of the tailgate and raises a grab handle rated at 300 pounds to make the climb safer; the step's handle makes box access easier but may need to be lowered again to slide a load in.
The tailgate includes an assist so the very heavy tailgate feels less heavy; but the assist is irrelevant if you remove the tailgate so have an assistant handy.
Short boxes have four tie-down cleats a few inches off the floor, long boxes get six.
Cargo can be secured with a hefty cable lock, and the box can be protected with a sprayed-in liner.
New for 2011 is an integrated fifth-wheel/gooseneck hitch prep package.
This assembly is securely mounted to the frame at the factory (and warranted by Ford) and leaves a flat floor with guidelines marked to cut out four fifth-wheel mounting holes or the center gooseneck; major hitch suppliers were consulted for compatibility and the final hitch hardware choice is left to the consumer.
The Super Duty also has an inside box-wall mounted 7-pin trailer plug. |